by rico, just a blink of an eye ago
I may have listed some of the titles of books I'm reading earlier which pertain to this entry as well. Writing dialog isn't a text book. It is simply one of the books that sell hardedly at book stores containing a healthy collection writing subject titles. Before I buy a book, I always check the library database to see if I can get away with reading it for free. There's never a comparison to browsing the shelves at a book store. That's a major reason why I wouldn't be found dead at a library browsing books if I didn't have to be there as a result of work. Considering that the noise policy no longer exists there either, the only beneficial reason to have a library card would have to be only to check out a book which a person previously puts a request in online or by phone. In and out, that's all they're good for, but Writing dialog wasn't in the database collection, so I bought it.
I'm still reading it. I'm a fast learner, just a slow reader. One of the suggested assignments in the book is to write conversation down as it is heard, say, in a coffee shop. Pretty much like taking dictation in shorthand. Simply write the words that come out of person 1's mouth, then the response from person 2's mouth, and back and forth, and back and forth. To make things easier, it's fine to dub a conversion with a digital recorder. My boss finds out that I'm recording, thanks to a snitch librarian, and decides to do me a favor and seek out rules and regulations governing tape recorders in the library.
Normally, one would think a recording device would be banned from being used at a library because it might result in students trying to listen to their seminars without earbuds or headphone devices. But, as a result of the boss's boss's boss--fuck knows how the scenario too may have changed from me dubbing my own conversations of people for analysis purposes and study, to what undoubtedly was described as esponsor--I get this big lecture about it being illegal to record in the library per such and such penal code number. I practically shit myself because I'm now self conscious of coming across as some creepy spy who is trying to tape record the stupid shit that comes out of the mouths of co-workers.
When will it end?
Today I asked somebody who knows the law. I asked, is it illegal to record people in public? and the answer was no. When I expanded further and asked if a public library was considered to be a public area where recording conversation might not be illegal, the response was this: there may be in-house rules set in place by the manager of the building that prohibits recording.
A black cloud hovers over my head now as I can only think of the way my boss tried to quote penal code numbers and what not about what I did, and that he wasn't certain whether his boss's boss might be pursuing some sort of legal action in compensation for the damages that have already taken place by my recording my jibber jabber with people.